Linking Employee Wellbeing and Engagement - Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Linking Employee Wellbeing and Engagement. Answer: Introduction Sustainable organisation performance is achieved by sustaining high performance level. There are several indicators that could be used to measure the high organizations' performance, by observing the employee management and the organizations' contribution to the environmental and societal level in the long run and also the financial indicators. There are internal and external challenges that face the organizational performance, but only successful organizations can manage these challenges and take the business opportunities. The term of sustainable organisation performance is related to the term of high performance workplace (HPW) and the term of the high performance workplace organization (HPWO). To achieve sustainability of high performance, organizations should be sure of directing the workforce performance towards the fulfilling the short term and long term organizational goals. The HPW was first introduced during 1990s, then it was developed to include, high employee work practi ces, HR practices and reward practices and commitment. Line managers also play a critical role in team management, as the motivational management style matches the HPW (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2016). The performance management evolution is linked to the strategy management, HRM and project management. It is a widely used concept almost in all of the human activities. Performance management consists of strategic, individual and operational performance management (Brudan, 2010). Implementing the performance management leads to an organizational sustainable growth, unlike other organizations that still depend on the rigid management models. The HPW and performance management process shape the organizational culture by creating empowerment and authority to the organization. The decentralize decision making enables the organization to respond effectively to the external environmental changes. The leaders of the HPWO are inspired to their employees through effective communication regarding the organizational goals and mission (Abdallah Ahluwalia, 2013). This report consists of three parts, the first part discusses the concepts of the HPW and HPWO, the second part highlights the performance management process and the third section concerns with the creation of the HPW within organizations. Addressing the concepts of HPW and HPWO The High performance workplace (HPW) is considered a balanced approach of integrating practices in the context, it also concerns with the managerial skills role within the organization, achieving partnership between the employees and leaders and it concerns with the vision, values and culture (Price waterhouse Coopers, n.da). Key Components of HPW, according to Price waterhouse Coopers (n.da), could be stated as follows: Managerial commitment: As all managerial levels are responsible for creating the organizational shared vision. Flexibility: Refers to the agility by being open to new business trends, acting proactively and ensuring that the leaders and employees are capable to adapt to change with an open mindset. Employee engagement: By creating a collaborative culture that enhances the communication between employees and managers across departments. Creating the organizational culture: Through sharing the ideas, values and vision among the employees. High performance working (HPW) activities exist in different areas as organizational workplace, relations among employees, leadership and developing organizations. Organizations may adopt various HPW approaches, for example, using the training and development. HPW practices affect the organizational performance, although, performance varies across organizations (Wood et al., 2013). For organizations to transfer to a high performance workplace organization (HPWO), is considered a significant change. The performance of the HPWO is measured by the ability of the organization to fulfill its goals and achieve a better position compered to its peers within a period of five years (Waal et al., 2017) There are five HPWO factors, according to Waal et al. (2017), they could be stated as follows: Quality of management: refers to trust, fair treatment, integrity, commitment and respect of managers. Action orientation: Refers to the adaptation of the open culture and involving employees in organizational processes, to allow for making mistakes and considering them as learning opportunities, knowledge sharing and exchanging ideas. Orientation for the long-term: refers to the long term commitment of the organization with suppliers and customers. Continuous improvement: by making the strategies unique through the continuous improvement processes which creates a source of competitive advantage. The quality of the employees: by selecting, recruiting and retaining talented employees and effective leaders who ensure the maximum flexibility and are able to develop their skills. These factors are a result of the combination between individuals, groups, organization and change processes. It is important for managers to realize the best process of creating change processes and implementing them (Waal Heijtel, 2016). Differences among organizations in achieving better performance than their competitors could be due to organizational internal factors, including the type of products and services and organizational culture, or they could be due to external factors, including complexity level in the industry and market conditions (Waal Goedegebuure, 2017). A brief evaluation of the link between HPW and sustained organisation performance, employee well-being and competitive advantage: In order to sustain the organizational performance, it is important to create a shared vision, to enable the organization to communicate with its stakeholders. The vision should describe the required outcomes, their aspects and features in order to sustain the achievements of the HPWO in the future. Employees are not required to be involved in creating the transformational vision of the organization. The change vision towards HPWO should be translated to the group and individual levels within the organization to be a shared vision among all of the organizational departments. The change management structure could be used to manage the changing environment to be compatible with the requirements of the change process. This may involve transformational leaders who have the ability to mobilize resources (Waal Heijtel, 2016). The HPW requires a high performance team and a good leader. Building the high performance team requires creating the right environment which encourages creativity and innovation and enables leaders to take the right decisions. Then it is important to promote the group discovery, through encouraging creative idea development. Harnessing the power of process through strategic planning and involving employees in the strategic planning process and in determining the priorities for implementation. It is important to schedule the strategic processes in relevance to high standards. Finally, it is important to review the process of creating a high performance team through and the output of the team and what is required to enhance the performance of the team in the future (Eales, 2012). Employees need to develop their skills by learning new behaviors, technology and processes with regard to the change vision. Training should be offered to the employees to provide the required skills to enable individuals to adapt to change and implement the change. Both of the individual and group levels sustain the change and avoid the risk of failing due to the high performance level of the urgency of operations. It is important to the management to keep informing individuals with necessary updates to assure good management of change and to create unique strategies that differentiate the organization from its competitors to achieve the competitive advantage and sustain this competitive advantage through a continuous process of performance development (Waal Heijtel, 2016). An identification of some of the main barriers to HPW: Researchers argue that in spite of the high importance of the HPW and HPWO not all of the organizations adopt these approaches. They may be hard to be adopted as they require innovation at workplace, and not all of the organizations are capable of creating an innovative workplace or able to create the assisting environment for creativity. It may be costly for some organizations to invest in technological innovations in the workplace. Uncertainty about the returns of investments may lead the organizations to avoid them or reduce the investments amounts allocated to technological investments as it also involves high levels of human capital (Lynch, 2015). Also it is found that high flexibility is not always good at the workplace, as flexibility results in teleworking which may have a negative impact on the employee performance as feeling isolated. Others may find that they are overloaded compared with employees in the office. These aspects negatively affect the HPWO. Other researchers argue that HPW affect the level of satisfaction of the employees and overload them as a result of job stress and work life in balance. Also, the type of the industry affects the organizational performance and the employees' satisfaction (Mariappanadar Kramar, 2014). Performance management According to Ohio Department of Administrative Services (2015), it is important for organizations to have a performance management cycle in order to: Share the knowledge with the employees regarding the organizational vision, mission and objectives. Provide the employees with their performance evaluation regarding their achievements in comparison to the expectations. To assist in improving employees' performance. Enhancing communication and improving the relationships among employees. Developing employees' capabilities, skills and knowledge According to Ohio Department of Administrative Services (2015), the performance management cycle involves four steps as follows: Setting organizational goals: Performance expectations should be defined to include, the quality, timeliness, quantity and outcomes of routine jobs. Performance expectations are the same to employees doing the same job. These expectations are the basis of evaluation of the main duties of their jobs. Goals are defined as the products and improvements that the employees should make to achieve the organizational purposes, accordingly, goals differ from employee to another. Although, the organizational goals should be mainly based on the organizational needs. When defining the organizational goals, some aspects should be considered, as follows: To clearly understand what the organization wants to improve and achieve. Defining possible and challenging goals. Defining measurable outcomes within a timeline. Relating the goals to the organizational mission. Goals could be settled according to the SMART goals. Communicating goals: It is important to share information with employees and encourage them to discuss any issues that need clarification. Employees have to be informed with their goals in relation to the organizational goals in order to enable management to measure the employee's performance according to the expectations. Observing employees' performance and providing Feedback: Employees' performance should be observed and a feedback of their performance should be provided. Observing the employees' performance requires focusing on certain actions, and focusing on many details, gather information from different sources and evaluating the employees' performance after finishing the observation process. Evaluating performance: After evaluating the employees' performance, a feedback should be provided to them on a regular basis to enable them to adjust their performance according to the organizational goals. Feedback should be timely, specific, regular, and manageable by the employee, related to the task and it should consider employees' strengths and weaknesses. The role of development and performance reviews: The goals of the groups and individuals should be aligned with the organizational goals. Both of the groups and individuals' performance should be rated among their peers. This process involves the development of employees' skills to achieve excellence and fulfill their goals. Employees' performance should be discussed with them in the annual assessment (Center for organizational workforce effectiveness, 2011). The performance provides a day to day and long term employees' management. Employees do their best to develop their performance when the performance management system is applied (Gifford, 2016). It is important to develop the organizational performance to ensure the organization's survival and ensure its positive performance (Ibrahim Primiana, 2015). 2.2. Examples of different ways of involving line managers in the performance review process: Line managers are identified as the main driver of better organizational management. They provide team members with the scope and treat them individually. They enhance the employee engagement by using their coaching skills. Line managers use different ways to develop the skills of the team members. Training people should be aligned with the expected outcomes. For example, workload management to correctly evaluate the employee performance either coping with the workload or not. Managers should be able to answer the employees' inquiries and provide them with the right and timely answers. Line managers should differentiate between employees according to their skills as what fits the customer service employees do not fit the operations employees (Personnel Today, 2013). Employee engagement is usually supported by the quality of the relationship with the line manager, for example, the line manager role in creating motivation. Survey researchers argue that three quarters of the managers have already coached their reports, but less than third the employees agree to this. Accordingly, line managers should manage their own responsibilities. Having a performance management system review does not guarantee that the employees will be improved, although employees who know the organizational goals could better achieve these goals (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2015). Line managers should treat the talent employees as an organizational resource that could be mobilized in different functional areas within the same organization (Price waterhouse Coopers, n.db). There are specific traits of personality that impact the leadership style to be an effective leader who can guide the team members, for example, the dominant leadership style is task oriented, which may not match the organizational requirement of cross functional team work, also the performance management system may need to be more flexible (Colville Millner, 2011). A brief evaluation of the contribution of the performance management process to promoting challenges, capability or recognizing and rewarding talent: Performance management is considered a continuous process of managing employees' performance through promoting and developing principles and values needed to develop the organizational performance. It involves activities as continuous performance review, rewarding employees' achievements, coaching, feedback and communication. The organizational overall performance is the collective performance of individuals within the organizations. Performance management is considered a tool to promote superior performance of the organizational workforce, through identifying the best ways to improve the employees' performance, job description and a 360 degree feedback. The performance management system should be reviewed to ensure its objectivity and fair treatment of employees in all organizational departments. Also, a recognition and rewarding system will assist in employee recognition. Effective performance management is considered a source of organizational competitive advantage (Sahoo Mishra, 2012). The level of employee engagement is a performance measure as they are positively linked. It is important to the HR to monitor the engagement rate to implement performance management (Colville Millner, 2011). Organizational culture is considered a basis for the high performance workplace which could be a source of competitive advantage for the organization if it could be actively shared across the organization. Practices and values are communicated within employees (Gupta, 2011). Sharing learning experiences are an enabler for long term performance. Line managers play a critical role in sharing, learning across the organization (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2011). An organizational approach towards shared values creation and communication, problem solving, trust, customer focus and learning are currently taking place in the HPWO (Keeble Armitage, 2010). Culture is related to HPW according to Hofstedes cultural dimensions as cited in Waal Chipeta, (2015), as follows: Power distance and HPO:Tthe leader role differs in a high power distance where the hierarchical levels are larger than the low power distance cultures, as communications between leaders and staff members are less and they are more stressed. The large hierarchical levels prohibits the employees from independent decision making as they have to take the approval of their managers. The low power distance encourages the effective decision making and improves outcomes. Empowering the employees allows them to trust their workplace, accordingly low power distance is best for the HPO. Individualism/collectivism and HPO: Individualism focuses on the personal goals more than the goals of the group. Collectivism encourages cooperation and working within teams, which are considered more suitable to an organizational culture that enhances innovation and trust among team members, accordingly collectivism is best matches the HPO. Uncertainty avoidance and HPO: Uncertainty avoidance people are more likely to obey their leaders and avoid innovation activities. It promotes for commitment, trust and loyalty to work place and it facilitates HPO. Masculinity versus femininity and HPO: Feminine cultures encourages the team members to be interactive with each other, it also builds the self-confidence culture and belonging to the organization. Masculinity cultures highly support organizational learning and innovation. Both of the masculine and feminine cultures are suitable for the HPO. Conclusion The High performance workplace (HPW) is considered a balanced approach of integrating practices in the context, it also concerns with the managerial skills role within the organization. HPW activities exist in different areas as organizational workplace, relations among employees, leadership and developing organizations. The HPW requires a high performance team and a good leader. Building the high performance team requires creating the right environment which encourages creativity and innovation and enables leaders to take the right decisions. For organizations to transfer to a high performance workplace organization (HPWO), is considered a significant change. In order to sustain the organizational performance, it is important to create a shared vision, to enable the organization to communicate with its stakeholders. The change vision towards HPWO should be translated to the group and individual levels within the organization to be a shared vision among all of the organizational departments. Employees need to develop their skills by learning new behaviors, technology and processes with regard to the change vision. Training should be offered to the employees to provide the required skills to enable individuals to adapt to change and implement the change. Line managers are identified as the main driver of better organizational management. They provide team members with the scope and treat them individually. They enhance the employee engagement by using their coaching skills. HPW and HPWO may be hard to be adopted as they require innovation at workplace, and not all of the organizations are capable of creating an innovative workplace or able to create the assisting environment for creativity. It may be costly for some organizations to invest in technological innovations in the workplace. Performance management is considered a continuous process of managing employees' performance through promoting and developing principles and values needed to develop the organizational performance. Organizational culture is considered a basis for the high performance workplace which could be a source of competitive advantage for the organization if it could be actively shared across the organization. Practices and values are communicated within employees. References Abdallah, E Ahluwalia, A 2013, The keys to building a high-performance culture, Buisness Journal. Brudan, A 2010, Rediscovering performance management: systems, learning and integration, Measuring Business Excellence, pp.109-23. Center for organizational workforce effectiveness 2011, Performance management toolkit. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2011, Final report. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2015, Employee outlook- Focus on managers. 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